Serodiagnosis of Lyme Disease

Abstract

Letters15 June 1991Serodiagnosis of Lyme DiseaseJeffrey M. Jones, MD, PhDJeffrey M. Jones, MD, PhDSearch for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-114-12-1064_1 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptTo the Editors: Rahn and Malawista (1) rightly point out that serologic testing for Lyme disease is poorly standardized. In addition to the problem of interlaboratory reproducibility of results, another problem must be considered: None of the currently used antibody tests has been rigorously proved to detect antibodies specific for Borrelia burgdorferi. Too few control sera specimens have been studied to evaluate specificity adequately, given the widespread use of these tests.Wilske and colleagues (2) and Hunter and coworkers (3) studied 13 sera specimens with anti-B?. burgdorferi immunofluorescentantibody (IFA) titers of 1:256 or higher from patients with well-documented Lyme disease....